ONLINE THERAPY / TELETHERAPY
During the current COVID-19 public health crisis, our practice has temporarily moved to exclusively online or phone counseling in the interest of everyone’s physical safety. Social distancing, while important to your and your loved ones’ health, can take a toll on your emotional well-being - we are here to help support you through this difficult time.
You may be wondering what exactly is online or teletherapy?
Is it as effective as in-person counseling?
Do I need any special technology to access teletherapy?
Can my issues be dealt with online?
Is it safe? Will my information be spread across the internet?
Is it going to feel awkward?
Whether or not we are experiencing a global pandemic, sometimes it’s just not possible or preferable to travel to our office for your therapy appointments. In those instances, you have the option to see your therapist via telephone or secure, web-based video on your personal device. from the comfort of your home or wherever is most convenient for you. We utilize a 100% HIPAA compliant teletherapy platform so you can be confident that your privacy is protected and valued. Our therapists have been practicing teletherapy (also called online therapy, remote therapy, virtual psychotherapy, video therapy, etc) since long before “COVID-19” became a part of our everyday lexicon so you can rest assured that we are experienced and effective, personal and connected. Plus, bonus, you won’t have to worry about traffic or Metro delays!
Over time it has become more and more clear that there are very few differences between in-person or teletherapy as far as providing effective, high-quality therapeutic care. This remains valid whether the client is new or already has a long-standing relationship with the therapist. Rest assured, online counseling is a more than legitimate alternative to in-person sessions.
There are a lot of benefits to meeting your therapist online, however, once in person therapy again becomes available and safe, you’re welcome to decide to transition to face-to-face visits or continue online if you’d prefer. You may also decide that some combination of the two might be better for you - we’ll work with you to determine what works best.
Are there any drawbacks to virtual therapy?
Well, to be honest, there can be.
Your privacy and confidentiality are very important and conducting online therapy can increase the potential for unwanted exposure. This is why we have chosen to use a software and practice system that is HIPAA compliant and utilizes bank-level encryption. Your information and our sessions will not be seen by anyone other than your provider.
Now that we’ve solved that problem, the biggest drawback to virtual therapy is the quality of your internet connection. If you live in an area with slow internet speeds, this may affect the audio and visual clarity of the session. Here are a few tips to solve for this problem:
Use wired ethernet rather than WiFi wherever possible. Think of it like driving, when it’s rush hour, your best bet is typically the HOV lane rather than congested highway lanes. Even better, this HOV lane is basically yours only and you can take it to wherever you need to go. On regular highway lanes, traffic can cut you off, slow you down, and even bring you to a standstill. Depending on your area, whether it’s slow internet speeds or a very large amount of people all trying to use WiFi at the same time, cabled ethernet is your best bet.
Similar to the congested highway analogy, we need to remove all highway construction. So, go ahead and shut down any other programs that may be running in the background and pause any large downloads. This will clear the way for your telehealth session to run at peak efficiency.
When you first log onto the virtual session, you’ll want to give permission for your webcam and microphone to work with telehealth so go ahead and click “Allow.”
Many of us are using laptops so go ahead and plug that baby in!
Sometimes, you may not have immediate access to a computer. In those instances, you are welcome to log onto telehealth using your phone or tablet. Unfortunately, those mediums will automatically be using WiFi. In that case, we’ll make it work. The above recommendations are best practice, but in our experience, WiFi can still be perfectly functional. We may have brief moments (at most, 1-2 minutes) of a frozen screen or a lag in the video, but typically it all works out in the end.
Finally, it’s important to choose a quiet, private, well-lit location for your session. If at all possible, it would be preferable if you can find a spot that doesn’t have a lot of light directly behind you (sitting in front of a window on a sunny day) because your webcam will struggle with all that backlight. Most of the time, you’ll be in total shadow while your background will be brightly lit.
Okay, you’re in! So how does it work?
Once we’ve agreed to an appointment date and time, you’ll be sent a link for the video appointment. If you’re on a computer, simply click on it when our appointment is scheduled to start. If you’re on a phone or tablet, open it through the “Telehealth by Simple Practice” app (download FREE in the app store). You can use the camera and audio on your computer or mobile device. There’s no confusing software to download or equipment to purchase - all you need is an internet connection and possibly a pair of headphones for additional privacy if you’d prefer.